The bond between us
by WouldBeExorcist
Summary: A flashback to the days of innocence, when to the twins, the world was full of hope, and empty of demons and Noah (yes, I know that sucked for a summary... Don't rub it in, please...)


"David! Go get your brother! DAVID! I AM TALKING TO YOU! Go get your brother from the river or there'll be no dinner for either of you!"  
The small boy laughed, running down the steep hill despite all the warnings his mother often gave him and his twin brother. He climbed over the wire fence, making another rip in his pants that would have to be patched later. He scampered down through the forest that sprawled at the foot of the hill that his house sat upon. Following the dirt path, worn down by the twins' many adventures into the forest to look for birds' eggs and bears. The two of them often heard their mother complaining to the neighbours that they would be the death of her.  
"Mum says if we don't come up, we don't get dinner," David said to his brother's back, grinning.  
Jasdero turned, his overlong blonde hair flicking over his shoulder as he grinned in sync with his twin.

"Okay... You wake up... And you're in a forest, and you're all alone, and it's dark. What do you do?"  
Jasdero closed his eyes, the scene coming to life in his mind.  
"I climb up a tree and scare all the birdies from their nests," he said, grinning.  
"But what if there are no nests?"  
"Of course there are nests, birds live in forests."  
"Not this one, Jasdero. Come on... Ok, there's no animals or nothing. Just you."  
"Um... What would you do?"  
"I'd climb down a burrow or something and wait till morning."  
Jasdero rolled onto his belly and glared. "David, I thought there weren't any animals in this forest. Animals make burrows."  
David twitched. "Um... I'm in a different forest than you."  
"Hey, no fair!" Jasdero whined. "That's not the rules."  
"It's my turn, I make the rules!" David protested.  
The two started wrestling and biting eachother.  
"Hey! Hey, stop it!" their mother yelled.  
"David started it..." Jasdero whimpered.  
"Dero started it..." David pouted.  
"I don't care who started it, I'm finishing it!" she yelled.  
Isabella's husband, the twins' father, had been killed in a road accident before the children had been born. This left the new mother to raise two unruly boys by herself, and the lack of any kind of father figure had made the boys unwilling to obey authority and liable to cause havoc in their small village. They preferred their own company to that of the other children, running off and playing pretending games all day instead of going to school.  
"Come here, both of you."  
David and Jasdero got up, walking to their mother. They had learned not to push their mother too much when she was already mad at them. Once was ok. Twice was pushing it. Three times got you locked in your room with nothing to do. And Isabella had placed them in different rooms (although on most nights one of them would still sneak into the other's room).  
She began tugging a comb through their hair, ignoring their winces and protests.  
"Honestly, your heads are like birds' nests. You'll both go bald one day, mark my words," she sighed, pulling them into a hug when she was done.  
"I wish you boys would listen to me more often... You'll end up unable to get jobs or do anything if you don't act responsibly."  
"We won't need to get jobs, Mom," David said, grinning at her.  
"Yeah, we won't grow up. We'll just stay little and live here with you forever," Jasdero added, also smiling.  
Isabella smiled at her boys. They were good kids, despite all the headaches they gave her.

"Hey, Dero?"  
"Mm?"  
The two were lying in bed together, whispering in the dark.  
"Did you mean what you said before? About staying small and being with Mom forever?"  
"Uh-huh."  
"It's just... I wanna grow up. I can't wait. I wanna get out of this stupid little town and go somewhere. Like New York. I really wanna see New York."  
Jasdero's face grew sad.  
"But all I wanna do is stay like this," the blonde whispered back to his twin. "Does that mean you'll leave us both for New York?"  
David stared at the ceiling, his expression not revealing anything. Then he grinned. "Of course not. You guys can come too. Heck, I'll pick up this whole hill and plonk it right in the middle of the city. Wouldn't that be something, a great big hill with our house on it right smack-dab in the middle of Manhattan. Wouldn't that be cool, Jasdero?"  
Happy again, Jasdero smiled. "Ok. No clue how we'd do it, but that'd be awesome."  
"Just you, me, and Mom."

8 years later  
David screamed. It felt like his head was splitting open. The pain eased for less than a moment, and he glimpsed dark droplets of blood on the hospital bed he was lying on. Next to him, Jasdero was curled up, groaning from the same pain.  
"David! Come on, take your hands away from your face! Let us help you!" he faintly heard before someone pulled his hands away from his forehead. A nurse gasped, another rushed out, her face pale.  
"Those marks on their foreheads...they're the exact same..."  
"That skin colour...it's not natural..."  
He groaned, one hand returning to his face, to shield his gaping stigmata from the icy air. The other hand reached out to his brother.  
"Jas...D-Dero..."  
Through his bloody grey hands, Jasdero looked desperately back at David, tears streaming down his face from the pain.  
"Dav...id..."  
They both stretched out their hands, flailing for eachother. They only had each other to comfort one another. That was all they wanted. A hand to hold. A bond, just between the two of them.  
Bonds.  
_Bondomu._  
The single name rang clear in their minds as their fingers brushed against each other; they fell limp against their pillows.

2 days later  
"Mom, I'm fine, really," said David, smirking, walking out of the back door.  
"As if. You should have seen yourselves. Your heads had crosses carved into them, for God's sake!" Isabella cried at her son. "I bet it was those damn thugs you and Jasdero hang out with. They'll get the both of you killed, because you're both too stupid to know any better!"  
They both fell completely silent. That crossed a line. Even being the idiot he was, David knew no mother should ever call their kids stupid.  
"I-I'm sorry, David...I didn't mean that, I'm just worried about the two of-"  
"Shut up," David growled.  
Isabella stopped talking again. No longer was she worried, or apologetic. Now she was mad.  
"Don't you tell me to shut up! I'm your mother-"  
"I said, shut up!" David yelled at her, running down the steep hill without looking back.  
"David, please! Don't run down the hill!"  
"Shut up, stupid-!"  
David suddenly choked as all the memories, knowledge and emotions in his mind suddenly zapped closed to him. In his mind, all he could see was himself, as he was now, facing someone. Half a someone, really. Only the right half of a shadowy figure, leering at him. He didn't like that leer. It felt like whoever- no, _what_ever that person was, they were a predator, and he was the prey.  
In the real world, his feet slipped underneath him, and he fell, as if in slow motion, forwards, face-first down the hill, and slammed into a tree at the base.  
"David!" he heard his mother scream.  
_But 'David' was only a name now.  
_"Shut up, damn human."  
_All that was left was 'Bondomu'._  
"W-what? David..."  
_The Clan of Noah's tenth apostle._  
"Come on out, akuma."  
_But the Eleventh still wasn't awake.  
_Six men emerged from the forest; huge, globe-shaped monsters ripped out of the skins like grotesque butterflies from their chrysalises.  
"David?"  
_Time to wake up, Jasdero._

"Mom?! David?! What happened?! Are you okay-" Jasdero ran out of the house, only to freeze at the sight of what lay before him.  
Isabella's torn clothes lay on and were partially buried by a pile of ash-like dust, dark pentacles surrounding.  
David was standing before them, staring at all that was left of his mother with a cocky grin on his face. His skin was grey, and his forehead was patterned with stigmata. The akuma floated nearby, their faces twisted in agony, silently screaming for release.  
"Welcome to the Noah, boys," said the Millenium Earl, appearing in a haze of dark mist, Road by his side.  
"Ooh! These two look fun! More fun than the last Bondomu, anyway..." giggled Road, twirling Lero behind her back.  
"Who're...David...Mom?" Jasdero whispered, before, like David, his mind was wiped clear of everything but the second half of the shadowy figure, grinning back at him.  
He fell to the ground, clutching his head as his skin grew ashen and the stigmata appeared on his face.  
"What's up with Blondie?" questioned Road, "Is he loopy?"  
"I'm sure it's just the shock of his genes awakening," answered the Earl.  
"You sure he's not gonna lose control? Just like..." trailed off Road, glancing at the Earl, who didn't respond.  
"Don't worry 'bout Jasdero, he'll come around," smirked David, after looking back and forth between the two in confusion for a few moments.  
"David..." Jasdero said, slowly standing up. "What about that dream we had...the one where we'd pick up the hill and take it and Mom to New York? Huh? Where's it gone?"  
David sneered at his brother. "What're you babbling on about?"  
Jasdero stared at David before a grin slowly appeared on his face. "Nothing, hee!"  
Satisfied that the eleventh apostle had awoken properly, the odd group made to leave. Remembering something, the Earl turned to the akuma. "Oh, that reminds me. My dear akuma, kill every pathetic human in this town."  
Jasdero quaveringly giggled, "Hee… Bye-bye."

AN: *le sigh* Hello my nakama. Yes, its me, your bestest buddy WouldBeExorcist, the most fabulous and badass thing to exist ever. Of all time.  
Anyway, enough stating the obvious (Accomplice: Stop it with the self preening).  
I came up with this one a while ago, and I finally finished it. I'm still kinda sad that I killed Isabella. I liked her *mope*.  
Don't worry, all you CoP fans, I'm still working hard. BUUUUUTTT... I don't think Change of Pace will be going much longer. Maybe two, three more chapters? If you have any good, hilarious ideas on how I can torture the boys/girls (or even Lenalee) more than I already have, then please, send them. I want CoP to keep going too, but I don't want it to drag on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on (Just like this). So make 'em good, kay?  
Also, another matter I need help with. I have a OC. Her name is Lucelia. She is an Exorcist. She loves Kanda. Kanda loves her. It's very sweet. I'm going to write her story when CoP is done. BUT. I NEED A TITLE. At the moment, the best I have is 'Forgive, not forget'. I want it to be significant and awesome sounding, not something I made up on a whim like Change of Pace. So. SEND ME YOUR IDEAS! And if you have experience with OCs, advice would be helpful. And in return, you get cookies. Everyone loves cookies, yes? With their choc-chip flavoury goodness, and credit in the ANs for any help given. Thank youuu.  
AND WITH THIS ONE SHOT (yes, its a one-shot, that's all there is, there isn't anymore) I HAVE THREE STORIES. WHICH MAKES THIS :3. I LOVE :3

Oh yeah, and thanks to The Accomplice for motivating me while I wrote this. Read her work! She be awesome. She gets cookies without reviewing by default :3 BUT I STILL WON'T SHARE MY CHOCOLATE WITH HER. I WILL NOT GIVE IN TO HER DEMANDS.

Ok, I'm done. Remember, REVIEW!

David: REVIEW!

Jasdero: REVIEW, HEE!

Everyone else: SO THAT THIS MONSTER WILL BE SATISFIED AND FINISH COP SO WE CAN GET BACK TO NORMAL!

I don't own David, Jasdero, any of the other characters (except Isabella) or -man.


End file.
